RADIO FREE EUROPE/RADIO LIBERTY, PRAGUE, CZECH REPUBLIC
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RFE/RL NEWSLINE Vol. 7, No. 180, Part II, 22 September 2003

FORMER U.S. PRESIDENT DEDICATES BOSNIAN MEMORIAL CENTER... Former
President Bill Clinton inaugurated a memorial center near Srebrenica
on 20 September, honoring the up to 8,000 mainly male Bosnian Muslims
killed by Serbian forces following the fall of the town in July 1995,
international and regional media reported. About 20,000 people
welcomed Clinton, whom families of the victims invited to come in
recognition of his role in ending the 1992-95 Bosnian conflict, which
took about 200,000 lives. At the ceremony, the remains of 107 people
were buried alongside those of 882 victims already there. The
memorial center is located near the place in Potocari where Serbian
forces separated Muslim males from women and children as Dutch UN
peacekeepers looked on. The center is shaped like a flower, with the
petals serving as gravesites. In Sarajevo, Clinton visited former
Bosnian President Alija Izetbegovic, who is in critical condition in
the Kosevo hospital (see "RFE/RL Newsline," 19 September 2003). PM

...STRESSES THE NEED TO BRING WAR CRIMINALS TO JUSTICE... Clinton
told those assembled near Srebrenica on 20 September that "bad people
who lusted for power killed these people simply because of who they
were. They sought power through genocide, but Srebrenica was the
beginning of the end of genocide in Europe," RFE/RL reported. "Those
most responsible for the atrocities, the leaders, have not been
apprehended. The search for them must continue until they are. We owe
it to the men and boys buried in this hallowed ground, we owe it to
the wives and children who survived them, and we owe it to all the
Bosnian children yet unborn, to see that justice is done," Clinton
added. PM

...AND URGES RECONCILIATION. Speaking near Srebrenica on 20
September, Clinton said, "many people said we would not succeed
because violence was a part of the fabric of life in this part of the
world and had been for hundreds of years. They were wrong as a matter
of history and wrong as a matter of morality. For much of your
history, [Muslims], Croats, and Serbs have lived together in peace.
The response to Srebrenica, ending the conflict, gives you a chance
but not a guarantee to live that way once again.... I hope the
memorial and cemetery will help to foster the return of more refugees
to Srebrenica. I hope they will always serve as a reminder of what
happens when we allow political leaders to define one person's
dignity in terms of another's humiliation. I hope the very mention of
Srebrenica will remind every child in the world that pride in our own
religious and ethnic heritage does not require or permit us to
dehumanize or kill those who are different," RFE/RL reported. PM

BOSNIAN MUSLIMS REMEMBER THEIR DEAD. Advija Ibrahimovic, an
18-year-old representative of the mothers and wives of the victims,
said near Srebrenica on 20 September that she "was 10 years old [at
the time of the massacre] and remember that I was incredibly scared.
I also remember when [the Serbian forces] took my father away -- and
his last look at my interrupted childhood," dpa reported. She added
that the victims "were killed only because they had different names
and they prayed to God differently." Sulejman Tihic, who is the
Muslim member of the Bosnian Presidency, thanked Clinton and the
United States for their role in ending the conflict but criticized
the UN for failing to protect the Muslims in the UN-designated "safe
area" of Srebrenica. Bosnian Serb Prime Minister Dragan Mikerevic,
who led a delegation of Bosnian Serb officials, "expressed respect"
for the victims, adding that it is everyone's duty to promote
reconciliation, "the normalization of life, and an end to the
crisis," RFE/RL's South Slavic and Albanian Languages Service
reported (see "RFE/RL Balkan Report," 6 September 2002). PM

FORMER U.S. PRESIDENT APPEALS TO KOSOVARS. Speaking in Prishtina on
19 September, Clinton told Kosovars: "I want to see you move towards
self-government, economic prosperity, a civilized and lawful society,
[and] religious and ethnic freedom," RFE/RL reported. He appealed to
Kosovars to be a model for conflict resolution, adding: "you are in
the driver's seat now. You can use it to try to get even, or you can
use it to work on your problems, to try to reconcile at least the
children of Kosovo to one another.... You could try to create for the
world a model of positive interdependence...[which] will give great
courage to the people in Middle East and Africa, all over the world,
who are struggling with the same sort of problem," dpa reported.
Clinton received an honorary doctorate from Prishtina University and
visited U.S. troops at Camp Bondsteel. Clinton and his administration
were instrumental in NATO's decision to intervene in Kosova in 1999,
ending the crackdown by Serbian forces and bombing targets in Serbia
proper and Montenegro. A major street in Prishtina is named after
him, and pro-U.S. feeling remains very strong among ethnic Albanians.
PM

MIXED SIGNALS ON KOSOVA TALKS. Harri Holkeri, who heads the UN
civilian administration in Kosova (UNMIK), said in Prishtina on 20
September that the start of "technical" talks between Kosovar and
Belgrade authorities is a "question of days and not weeks," RFE/RL's
South Slavic and Albanian Languages Service reported. But Kosovar
President Ibrahim Rugova and Prime Minister Bajram Rexhepi said after
talks with Holkeri that their main concern is that UNMIK transfer
more powers to Kosova's elected authorities, the Croatian news agency
Hina reported. Several Kosovar leaders have argued that there is no
point in their holding talks with Belgrade as long as UNMIK has the
final say in many areas of concern to the Serbs. Those Kosovars add
that UNMIK should either transfer more powers to the Prishtina
authorities or join the Kosovar delegation at the talks, rather than
act as a mediator (see "RFE/RL Newsline," 15 September 2003, and
"RFE/RL Balkan Report," 27 June, and 1 and 15 August 2003). PM